


sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods

by WishingTree



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/F, i dont know what else to put here someone let me know if i've missed something, the title was the first thing i came up with but then the story changed and i just left it as is, yes i realise the title seems a bit depressing but the story really isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3188399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/WishingTree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 times Carmilla did the exact opposite of what she was supposed to do and 1 time Laura completely approved</p>
            </blockquote>





	sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods

**Author's Note:**

> Title from No One is Alone from the Into the Woods musical;

 

\-- 1 --

“Hey, Carm,” Laura leans over her sleeping girlfriend and pokes her.  “Carmilla, time to get up.” She gets absolutely no response from the inert vampire.

She starts tugging on her arm instead, carefully pulling it out from under the pillow. This gets Carmilla to turn her head towards her before she burrows right back in, leaving her arm hanging over the edge of the bed. “Come on, I know it’s early but this was your plan.”

She hears some grumbles coming from under the pile of hair, but the only words she really catches are ‘idea’ and ‘no’.

“Carmilla,” she tries to comb some hair away from her girlfriend’s face, but it doesn’t stay out of the way and falls back again as soon as she lets go. “Carmilla, come on. I’m hungry and I’ve had like 12 hours of sleep in the last 3 days, can you just get up so we can go see the thing you were talking about? We’ll stop for food on the way. I promise we can sleep in all day tomorrow.”

Carmilla doesn’t react, and Laura can practically feel her exhaustion-induced crankiness coming to the surface.

Carmilla had been so excited last night when Laura had gotten in, rambling about some show with a guest speaker at a nearby planetarium, and she had looked so _adorable_ that Laura had instantly agreed to make a day of it with her, not that she would’ve disagreed otherwise. She loved spending time with her, but midterms were finally over and she just wanted to sleep. However, whatever talk or presentation that was going on at the planetarium was a one-day-only kind of thing, and Carmilla looked so eager to see it that Laura just figured she could go one more day before she crashed. She was a college student; her body was practically made for going without sleep.

But she did not appreciate putting in all this effort if Carmilla was just going to sleep through her own plans.

She tries – ineffectively – to convince Carmilla to wake up on her own for several more minutes. She pulls the blankets back, but the only thing that accomplishes is Carmilla curling more tightly into herself. Laura stands back, crossing her arms. “You were the one who insisted we get up for this! It was all your idea!” She huffs some hair out of her eyes. “I woke up at 7 am on a Saturday for this, and I’m ready to go, so get up you stupid vampire! You did not make me do this for nothing.” She deflates and pouts, slouching. “You’re going to miss your show.”

This actually gets Carmilla to grumble something she doesn’t catch, but then her eyes are wide open and she lifts her head off the pillow. Laura doesn’t have any time to react as Carmilla springs out of bed and haphazardly throws on a different shirt, because _of course_ she was wearing her boots and leather pants to bed. Now changed, Carmilla runs a hand through her hair, doing absolutely nothing to it, before smiling widely and swooping in to press a kiss to Laura’s cheek.

“Hey creampuff. Bit of a late start, don’t you think?”

Laura scoffs, “Oh, that is definitely not my fault.”

“Hey, this is the middle of the night for me. Now come on, I’ll get you some breakfast before we go, there’s still time.” She rushes her out the door and speeds them to a nearby coffee shop.

 

 

\-- 2 -- 

“Hello!” is the very enthusiastic greeting Carmilla receives when she enters the dorm room. Laura is standing between the beds and holding something behind her back, quite literally bouncing on her feet with an especially wide smile on her face.

The sight brings a grin to Carmilla’s face as well. “Hey cutie, what’s up?”

Laura bounces higher and takes one hand out from behind her back to point at Carmilla’s bed, gesturing for her to sit and then giggling like a very small child.

Carmilla raises an eyebrow, but does as she says, a bemused smile flitting across her lips. She sets her bag down on the floor near her headboard and falls onto her bed, leaning back on her hands and looking at her girlfriend expectantly.

Laura takes the one step required to bring her closer, when her smile dims unexpectedly. Carmilla’s eyebrows furrow at the sight. Laura sees the worried expression on the vampire’s face, but that only serves to increase her nervousness she’s currently trying to fight off.

“Has something happened? What’s wrong?”

Laura chews on her lip, doubting everything she’s done that day and feeling the weight resting in her hands. Carmilla sits up properly and raises her hands slightly, leaving them fluttering halfway towards Laura.

“Cupcake?”

“No no, nothing’s wrong, it’s just – I was just – ”

Carmilla leans forward now, trying to get a better read on the situation and whether or not she had to fix something for Laura. She relaxes marginally when she realizes there doesn’t seem to be any immediate threats, but she still looks concerned.

Laura shakes her head and tries again, wondering where these nerves came from. “See, while you were in class I was looking at all your books, and you have so many of them, and there’s so many different languages, like I don’t even recognize some of them, and they’re all old and valuable and I know you enjoy them, and I mean of course you do, books are wonderful and you must know so many – ” She cuts herself off again.

She raises her head to look at Carmilla, but the only look she sees is one of confusion.

“You didn’t, like, trash one of my books or anything did you? Because – I mean, even if you did it’s okay, only some of them are really valuable, and it’s not that important?” Carmilla guesses haphazardly in an attempt to make Laura happy again.

“No, nothing like that. I’m just – nervous? I think.”

Carmilla raises an eyebrow, “Nervous about what?”

Laura stands up straight and clears her throat. “So, I know it’s not anywhere near Christmas or your birthday, or even like Valentine’s Day or anything, but I just thought of it and wanted to – ” She squints and cuts herself off yet again before just sighing and thrusting the object she’d been hiding behind her back into Carmilla’s hands.

The wrapping paper is covered in little penguins wearing Santa hats, and Carmilla is extremely confused. She stares at the gift for a moment then looks back up at Laura as if she doesn’t know what to do with this.

Laura rolls her eyes and sits down next to her on the bed, nudging her arm. “Open it?” It comes out a bit more like a question then she meant for it to, but the longer she waits the more she can convince herself that Carmilla will hate it and this will be the final straw that causes her to be dumped by her vampire roommate.

Slowly, Carmilla peels off the tape and pushes the paper out of the way, revealing a book. A children’s book, if the illustration on the cover was anything to go by.

Next to her, Laura fidgets, not sure what to do with her hands. “It’s what my mom used to read to me, when I’d had a rough day or I was in a bad mood over something. I just figured that if you ever got tired of deep existential texts and fancy languages and just wanted something light to take your mind off of things, you know, give your big brain a rest, maybe you would want to – wait, are you – are you crying?! Carmilla!” Laura throws herself forwards and hugs her tightly, completely blindsided.  “Wh-what’s wrong? What happened what did I do? I’m sorry! I just thought you might like it and – ” Carmilla raises her hand and swipes it at her a couple times, getting her to stop talking. Her head is bowed and her hair is obscuring her face as she looks at the book in her lap.

“Are – are you okay?” Laura asks tentatively, “Do you hate it that much?”

Carmilla chuckles, though it sounds significantly more teary than usual. “No I – I love it. Thank you,” she whispers, leaning into Laura’s side.

Laura keeps her arms wrapped around Carmilla, letting the other girl rest her head against her shoulder. She softly runs her hand through her hair, absently humming a tune. Eventually, she hears Carmilla exhale and lets her body relax against hers, and Laura takes that as her cue to start talking again.

“This is the exact opposite of how you’re supposed to react when someone gives you a present, you know.”

Carmilla sniffles a little – something she will deny until the day she dies again – and wipes halfheartedly at her face. “Yeah, yeah. I just – I haven’t exactly been on the receiving end of many of those, cutie."

Laura’s face falls, and she has nothing to say that would help. Instead she just pulls her close again, watching as she holds the book like something precious and delicately opens the cover, turning to the first page.

 

 

 -- 3 --

“Carmilla! I said vanilla! This is chocolate. It’s clearly not vanilla!”

“Is it?” Carmilla swipes some icing off the top of the box and licks it off her finger. “Oops.”

Laura frowns. Now she was just being difficult on purpose. “It’s Danny’s birthday Carm, that means she gets to pick the cake, and you _know_ she doesn’t like chocolate. And I know that you know this, _because I told you_. Several times. And texted you while you were at the bakery. Twice.”

Carmilla shrugs, looking completely unrepentant and moving to sit on her bed. “Who doesn’t pick chocolate over vanilla anyways? Chocolate tastes much better.” Ignoring Laura’s glare, she continues, waving her hand around. “The air must be too thin all the way up where her head is, it’s affected her taste buds.”

Laura narrows her eyes even farther and points at the door. “Go get her another cake. And don’t start complaining about how long it’ll take, I know you can poof places in seconds.”

Carmilla rolls her eyes before heaving herself off the bed and dragging her feet over to the door. “Alright, alright, I’ll go get the beanstalk her cake, don’t worry about it sunshine.”

“Get it right this time!” Laura yells after her as the door closes behind her, but she gets the distinct feeling she’s already poofed away. She sighs and pulls out her phone, texting Laf, ‘ _what do u think about having 2 cakes for danny’s party?_ ’

 

 

\-- 4 -- 

Laura tugs on Carmilla’s arm insistently, breaking the vampire’s determined stride. “I’m pretty sure the lady said left for two blocks and then right, not continue straight and then turn left.”

“Come on cutie, I’ve been here plenty of times.”

“How many times were in this century?”

“I can find this restaurant on my own,” Carmilla continues, completely ignoring her. “Besides, this city isn’t that hard to navigate through. Ever seen Suceava? That layout is just ridiculous.”

She’s been squinting around at their surroundings for the last twenty minutes while Laura trails after her, almost completely sure they were lost.  “But we’re going to keep Laf and Perry waiting if we’re too late.”

“Don’t worry, I know where I’m going.”

Of course, they wind up completely lost and at least 45 minutes late, so Laura sends (another) apology text to Perry and Lafontaine before grabbing Carmilla’s arm and _insisting_ they ask for directions again, this time with Laura not letting go of Carmilla’s hand and dragging her along as she follows them exactly.

Carmilla, though she tries to deny it, pouts the whole way and doesn’t say anything until they get to the restaurant, and even then it’s only to grumble a greeting at Perry and Lafontaine before falling into the booth. Laura’s repeated apology and subsequent explanation for why they are late sets her off on another rant about stupid broody vampires who won’t follow simple instructions, and Carmilla actually looks embarrassed this time, sinking down in her seat and half covering her face with the breadstick she swipes from Laura’s plate while she talks.

Laura sees this and rolls her eyes, but she twines her fingers with Carmilla’s other hand anyways.

 

 

 -- 5 --

They’re both lying in bed and whatever it is that Carmilla’s doing to her right now, she is enjoying it _immensely_. Under any other circumstances, she’d remember to be embarrassed about the moan that just escaped of her lips, but her brain is too busy melting in her skull.

Distantly, she hears the door creak open, which she _really_ doesn’t care much about, but then it’s followed by a shriek that sounds an awful lot like Perry and Carmilla is jerking away from her. Laura opens her eyes just in time to see a flash of red as the door slams shut, and she realizes exactly what position her and Carmilla had been when they’d been effectively walked in on. Her face only gets redder as she registers Lafontaine laughing their ass off in the hallway, followed by a yelled, ‘Sorry!” as footsteps clomp away down the hall.

Carmilla is now lying at Laura’s side, her face pressed into her shoulder as she hears Laura taking heaving breaths to try to get her heart rate under control. A few more moments pass, and Carmilla can practically feel the hysteria building in the tiny girl.

“Carmilla,” she starts in a very small voice, “did that really just happen? Did Lafontaine and Perry really just walk into our dorm while we were – ”

Carmilla grimaces. “I’m afraid so, cutie.”

“Ah,” Laura breathes out, her eyes locked on the ceiling. “So I guess I really am never going to face them again.”

“I’m sorry,” Carmilla winces, “I think – I think I may have forgotten to lock the door.”

Laura blinks a few times before turning her head to face her. A strangled, “what?” leaves her lips, and Carmilla winces again, biting her lip and shaking her head.

Laura gapes and props herself up so she can get a good look at her cowering girlfriend. “What?” Carmilla mumbles something Laura doesn’t hear. “Please say that again.”

“Well, I just – you told me to lock the door, but then you just – _looked_ at me with those _eyes_. It was – and then you just turned around and – ” Carmilla was mumbling again. “I was – I was just really – distracted, and –

Laura sighs again, before leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. She wants to be mad, but she’s also kind of pleased that she was so distracting Carmilla forgot to do the one thing she was supposed to, and the ego boost didn’t hurt either. The other girl also looks sorry, really sorry, and is making an adorable pleading face that she would probably deny the existence of if she could see it.

Laura exhales and lies back, formulating a plan on how to avoid all her friends and never show her face ever again, with the optional goal of not failing out of school.

 

 

\-- (+)1 -- 

Laura groans from where she has her head buried in the pillow, pressing her face into it before flopping over onto her back and draping her arm over her eyes. “Carm, can you please just go to sleep? Please?” She opens an eye to peek at her roommate from under her arm. “It’s been like 3 hours and I don’t know what it is you’re doing, but I w– ” She stops talking when she realizes Carmilla’s wearing headphones now, leaning against the headboard and still sporadically typing away on the laptop.

Making her decision, she tries to wriggle over to the edge of her bed – it’s not a hard feat to accomplish, it’s a very small bed – and forces herself out from her blankets, stumbling a little on her feet. After successfully pushing herself out of the bed, she goes to Carmilla and tucks herself clumsily under the covers, limbs heavy, curling partially around the vampire with her head resting near Carmilla’s thigh. She’s got a headache brought on by too little sleep, and her eyes are dry and scratchy.

Carmilla shifts a little to accommodate the other girl, absently running a hand through her long hair and Laura sighs happily at the contact, but she continues typing with her other hand. It’s effectively keeping Laura from falling asleep, though she isn’t exactly sure why. The typing isn’t especially loud or disruptive, and she’s slept with much brighter lights on then an illuminated laptop screen. Maybe she just wants cuddles.

She spends the next couple minutes trying to burrow into the covers again, thinking maybe Carmilla’s proximity will help, but sleep still won’t come and she groans. Laura untangles an arm enough that she can prod Carmilla’s leg to get her attention, rolling partially onto her back so she can look up at Carmilla’s face. “Aren’t you tired?” Carmilla pulls the headphones off, letting them dangle around her neck.

“Nocturnal, remember? Creature of the night?”

Laura yawns, trying to cover it with her hand and mostly failing. “What are you doing anyways?”

Carmilla smiles down at her for a moment. Laura notices she has a surprisingly impressive case of bedhead, sticking up funny on the right side. “It’s just some – poetry, I guess.” She’s put her hand back in Laura’s hair, and she seems very _happy_. Not that she had been all that unhappy recently. In fact, for the last couple of months the vampire’s mood has only improved, with less and less violently bad days.

“Poetry, huh? That a thing you do?” Laura rearranges herself again, leaning her head against Carmilla’s leg. Carmilla smiles shyly at her, and Laura notices her eyes seem to be sparkling, and her whole being just seemed very happy, happy in the best way, the way that could make you forget she was centuries old. She seems calm, content, carefree. Like sitting cross-legged in the dark with a laptop balanced on one knee is exactly the place she’s always wanted to be.

“I just – I used to write poetry and stuff, did you know that? Back before – before the coffin when I was still young, and things happened, I always loved it, writing it all down. I was pretty good at it too. But then I couldn’t – I didn’t have any more… motivation? I had nothing to write anymore, nothing I wanted to remember, no more beauty to see – nothing I wanted to share with the world. I couldn’t force myself to do it, so I let it go. I let a lot of things go.

“And tonight, I was just sitting here looking around the dorm room, and then you came in. And while you went to shower I was just thinking about – well, about where I am now. And I just felt – I don’t know, I wanted to – I want _this_ to be remembered.”

And she’s smiling so earnestly and looks so _young_ and happy with herself that Laura melts and props her head down on her leg, cuddling in as best she can. “I’m glad you’ve found it again Carm,” she mumbles as she settles herself in to lie there until Carmilla was done.


End file.
